National news in brief, 6/26

BOSTON — Democratic U.S. Rep. Edward Markey and Republican Gabriel Gomez both expressed confidence in the messages they delivered to voters during their campaigns to succeed John Kerry in the U.S. Senate, a race where relatively few people were expected to vote in Tuesday's special election.

Both candidates made a series of stops in the campaigns' final hours, culminating with election eve rallies Monday night, while their staffers cranked up their all-important ground games designed to get as many of their voters to the polls as possible.

On Tuesday, both men themselves voted and reflected briefly on the shortened campaign season. The Senate seat opened when Kerry resigned to become U.S. Secretary of State.

ILLINOIS

Bad credit costing taxpayers millions

CHICAGO — Largely because of its unfunded retirement plans, Illinois has replaced longtime bottom-dweller California as having the lowest credit rating of any state. So when Illinois tries to borrow money, it faces the same problem as the spendthrift cousin: far higher interest rates.

Take the $1.3 billion in bonds Illinois is expected to sell this week to improve highways, rebuild a 40-year-old elevated train line in Chicago and buy land for an airport. It is estimated the state will pay more than $18 million in extra interest each year than states such as Virginia or Maryland, which have high credit ratings.

That's an additional $450 million over the 25-year life of a bond issue. In personal terms, it's $36 taken directly from the pockets of each of Illinois' nearly 13 million residents.

NEW YORK

Inquiry backs 1980s sexual abuse plea

MINEOLA — There is no reason to overturn the conviction of a man in a notorious 1980s sex abuse scandal, prosecutors announced Monday after a three-year review that was prompted in part by a 2003 Oscar-nominated documentary that questioned the prosecution.

There was strong reason to investigate and prosecute both Jesse Friedman and his father when the scandal erupted in 1987, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a 168-page report Monday. The new inquiry also concluded that father and son had abused young boys taking computer classes in the basement of their Great Neck, Long Island, home.

Both pleaded guilty in 1988 to abusing 13 children.

Friedman's attorney, Ronald Kuby, called the report a "whitewash." He and Kuby said they intend to continue fighting for his exoneration.

Rice's review was undertaken after Friedman appealed his conviction following the release of "Capturing the Friedmans." A federal appeals court in 2010 refused to overturn the conviction, but encouraged Rice — who was not the original prosecutor — to review the case.